I just checked and there's an Alexander Technique teacher in Phoenix, so it would definitely be a city I'd visit.

I'll let you know if I ever make it out there over the coming years.

Also, I'm curious: why did you decide to quit drinking? I've been thinking of doing so myself. I just got off a 30 day beer bender (6 a night), and I'm realizing maybe I'm developing a problem with it.

@Myers,

I started a blog years ago, and I made $200 in the 5 months it was up. Disappointed, I threw in the towel, as I was basically just "in it" for the money. But I found out later that that was actually pretty good. One of the A-list bloggers on personal development made just $50 in his first 9 months. But fast forward a year or two, and he was making $40,000 a month! He said nothing much happens in the first year. This time, I'm going to heed that advice, not that I'll make as much as he did, but $8,300 a month is my ultimate goal -- just one sale a day.

And yes, I'd love to take a look at the blog you write for. Please do PM me and send me the link!

Also, I'm curious: why did you decide to quit drinking? I've been thinking of doing so myself. I just got off a 30 day beer bender (6 a night), and I'm realizing maybe I'm developing a problem with it.!

Iím fifty and was starting to get that beer belly and swollen face look. I never really got hangovers unless I drank hard liquor with my beer, but I drank on average a six pack 4-5 nights a week (less on weekdays, more on the weekends). Pretty much what youíre describing.

I didnít have a hard time quitting or anything, it was just time.

I started working out with a buddy of mine at his gym, and I feel quite a bit better. A lot of things I was attributing to ďgetting olderĒ were actually drinking and not working out.

(early morning now, but the goblin upon reading the above noted that he rarely drank anything much beyond his coffee then, at most the very occasional glass of swiss white wine with the odd evening meal perhaps, yet coffee was clearly his drug of choice throughout, he ingested it to good effect as if continuously, where those effects were his geared up mind and being more physically awake too, even if he suspected that coffee like most drugs eventually poisoned one, worth it though, as life was not about longevity anyway, any more than writing was about those afore mentioned external rewards if one was aiming to be honest with oneself here, just it was one's journey to self at best, then relating "...so I write under the influence of coffee, yet I could just as equally say that I drink coffee under the influence of writing too, just two sides of the same coin isn't it, being that state of awareness that one writes carefully down what one's dream state envisages up, the one playing off the other, the first experiencing something the other then recording it, but in truth it's never anything more than a coffee with a pen to an imagined audience there, yet the alternative is to be anchored to one's reality again, so I'm a "pen-coffee" drug user like this, and where all drugs whether they be stimulants to stimulate one or sedatives to sedate one are just a means of escape, after all this "reading" is your means of escape too, your drug as it were, to which I guess I'd better return you to your reality now...")

what did this used 2 be? stick it back up there.. city boy is really good!

That was John coming through in Church. One day. I'll go through some old notebooks and post some adventures I recorded from my OBEs. A few of these people on this site aren't ready for them because they are still stuck in "Taboo" land. Hopefully, technology will help melt their frozen brains, allowing their consciousness to shine through. Forgive me for bashing, but first in was the lame religious leaders repressing the people and now it's the lame scientists repressing the people. But, what could you do? Somebody has to be in the driver's seat. But, the question is "Why somebody always lame?"

That was John coming through in Church. One day. I'll go through some old notebooks and post some adventures I recorded from my OBEs. A few of these people on this site aren't ready for them because they are still stuck in "Taboo" land. Hopefully, technology will help melt their frozen brains, allowing their consciousness to shine through. Forgive me for bashing, but first in was the lame religious leaders repressing the people and now it's the lame scientists repressing the people. But, what could you do? Somebody has to be in the driver's seat. But, the question is "Why somebody always lame?"

I think you should make John a homosexual, even hint at a sexual or pseudo-sexual incident between you two. That would bring it into this century, give this piece the push it needs (no pun intended). Kids these days want it raw and unfiltered.

I was offering you real advice here. I’m not sure why you are acting so hostile.

There is nothing wrong with two men loving each other—even in THAT way. It would make this story ‘pop’

You once stated something that I'm sure we both can agree upon. You said that we "co-exist" on this site. I'm fine with that. But, I despise the "ganging-up" and the "cheap shots" you take at me with the other one. Why you want to make morons out of yourselves is beyond my understanding? That "gutter stuff" raises the hair on my neck. And your lame comment -- "There is nothing wrong with men loving each other" -- what is the intention? To have every gay member on the site stoning me? I had more gay couples at my wedding than you probably see in a month's time. I'm not a "hick," Brian. You ought to know that by now. I kind of apology for some of the nasty stuff I said. But, please mind your own business. I like you better that way.

("...to post is win..." smiled the goblin, adding "...thus to continue on in spite of those knocks is to triumph without fighting, so with me it's not "what I write" that matters so much as "if I write" that does matter dearly, where everything I have written could just be good, bad, or whatever even, what of it though, for tomorrow those same readers, and new ones too, will be here hungry again, and yes they'll probably have forgotten what I wrote yesterday even but instead they'll hit the "new posts" button to note "who's written what in where" with all those known and unknown personas to them, where your persona is not just your username now, from there though their choice of who's post they'll pick depends largely upon their taste and your track record...", in fact, the goblin understood this process well, recounted it many time by now, only that most pesonas didn't care about those reader reading them already for imagined bookreaders instead, "the wood for the tree" as it were, the goblin just smiled "...can't offer you a book readership, come to think of it I don't see many folks reading books these days, but you still want a readership now, then let your posts become your ambassadors, and don't stop till they're reading you for sure...")

You once stated something that I'm sure we both can agree upon. You said that we "co-exist" on this site. I'm fine with that. But, I despise the "ganging-up" and the "cheap shots" you take at me with the other one. Why you want to make morons out of yourselves is beyond my understanding? That "gutter stuff" raises the hair on my neck. And your lame comment -- "There is nothing wrong with men loving each other" -- what is the intention? To have every gay member on the site stoning me? I had more gay couples at my wedding than you probably see in a month's time. I'm not a "hick," Brian. You ought to know that by now. I kind of apology for some of the nasty stuff I said. But, please mind your own business. I like you better that way.

Youíre not a hick, but you are stifled as a writer by your inhibitions. Iím not trying to mock you. Iím trying to push you to let go of the reins and let the horses run.

I like fiction that pushes boundaries. And good fiction always pushes boundaries. Sometimes the boundaries are external, but often they are internal. They are the limits of your ability. An artist at the limits of his abilities is always compelling. The reason Aretha Franklin sounds so good when she sings is because she sounds like she is at the limit of her ability. Itís true with all amazing musicians and artists.

If you for a second, anywhere in a piece of work, come off as phoning it in, youíre done. Itís over.

So, Iím bumping you out of your comfort zone, or trying to. So far you are resisting, but if you just give in youíll see that the rewards out-weigh the risks.

("...to post is win..." smiled the goblin, adding "...thus to continue on in spite of those knocks is to triumph without fighting, so with me it's not "what I write" that matters so much as "if I write" that does matter dearly, where everything I have written could just be good, bad, or whatever even, what of it though, for tomorrow those same readers, and new ones too, will be here hungry again, and yes they'll probably have forgotten what I wrote yesterday even but instead they'll hit the "new posts" button to note "who's written what in where" with all those known and unknown personas to them, where your persona is not just your username now, from there though their choice of who's post they'll pick depends largely upon their taste and your track record...", in fact, the goblin understood this process well, recounted it many time by now, only that most pesonas didn't care about those reader reading them already for imagined bookreader instead, "the wood for the tree" as it were, the goblin just smiled "...can't offer you a book readership, come to think of it I don't see many folks reading books these days, but you still want a readership now, then let your posts become your ambassadors, and don't stop till they're reading you for sure...")

Here is an example CB. Fleamailman has created a character. Iím assuming itís been years. For whatever reason, here it is.

Iím not knocking the creating of a persona or character and then employing it to do some work the creator deems necessary. Thatís a perfectly worthwhile effort IMO.

But the work seems(at least to this reader) to be too easy at this point, a predictable pattern. FMM drifts in and out of this dialogue with too much ease, as if he is putting on a Cardigan and some tennis shoes after some amount of real life only hinted at.

Yeah, I understand the game and the philosophy behind it, but if it is easy then the edge of the art form is lost. The sharpness of the blade no longer zings with the new and unpredictable. It no longer feels like the limits of his ability.

And yes, some artists are uniquely suited to present their art as though it is the limits of their ability, but those people are rare. You have to be born with that.

The rest of us have to always keep this idea in our minds and work for it.

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